About Us

Māpua Community Library – A History

The library was started in 1943 by Mary Robb who had a vision of books being locally available for borrowing. 

In the beginning, and sanctioned by the National Library, a regular loan of fifty books from the mobile library service enabled the opening of the “Māpua Library” in the porch of a private house in Toru Street every Saturday for an hour.  Then, in 1980 when a larger space was needed, the Māpua Hall made space available for the library. In 1987 when the mobile library service ceased operating, an arrangement was made with the Richmond Library to supplement Māpua library stock.

Around 2000, the Moutere Hills RSA very generously offered to share the site on the corner of Toru Street and Aranui Road. Significant fund raising ensued and with financial help from the New Zealand Lottery Board and Canterbury Charitable Trust, the construction of a permanent, purpose-built shared facility was launched. In 2002, with much excitement and ceremony, the doors were opened by “National Treasure” Margaret Mahy.  Subsequently, the Moutere Hills RSA memorial library (Māpua Community Library), a community-based library run by volunteers for the community, was born.

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Our People

All staff are volunteers as are the members of the committee. We are very lucky to have the calibre of volunteers which we do, and we suspect we are one of the very few organisations that has a volunteer waiting list.  Volunteers generally sign up for a specific role, but all contribute to the fundraising and running of the library. For more information, pop into the library and request a form and chat to a volunteer on duty.

Judy Vaughan, a Māpua Library Volunteer for five years. As well as serving as a librarian, Judy leads the Adult Tutoring Initiative help at the library and at Motueka’s Community House. Judy is a former teacher and a trained ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) tutor and is passionate about adult learning.

Our Patron

Christchurch-born and Whanganui raised, Emma Stevens is a retired teacher and author. She spent six memorable years in isolated villages in bush Alaska in the early 2000s, where bush planes provided access to the outside world and where small village communities rely on each other for survival. In 2007, she returned to Nelson and worked as a resource teacher in Motueka. Five years later while still teaching, she began writing about her Alaskan experiences. In 2013 Emma released Walking on Ice, her first book in the trilogy of memoirs describing the adventures, dangers and excitement of bush living while working with the Yup’ik Eskimo people. The second book about her Alaskan experiences, Nesting on the Nushagak followed two years later, and after popular demand she released the final book Dancing on the Tundra in 2016 in what then became an Alaskan trilogy. Since the release of her first book, she has been in demand, travelling with her husband throughout NZ and giving hundreds of talks as well as sharing artefacts about her time in Alaska. Emma has recently completed her first novel and begun writing poetry again. She lives with her husband in Tasman Village, surrounded by the orchards and vineyards of the stunning Upper Moutere area. 

Our Supporters

The library is very appreciative of all of its supporters – big and small. We are the lucky recipients of grants from Rata Foundation, Top of the South Community Foundation, Tasman District Council, Network Tasman Trust, One Forty One and the Harcourts Foundation. The Māpua/Ruby Bay and District Community Trust and Motueka Community Store have helped with purchases as well. Book donations are another wonderful means of support. If we are unable to use donated books on our shelves, they are sold at one of our Book Sales.